New 12inc cabs

[djtom29]

Hi All!

 

realy quick one (I hope) I am looking to upgrade my pa by buying a new set of 12/15 inch cabs. they need to be loud clear and ofcourse cheap! im looking for 2 12inch for about £200 including amps! that sounds stupid but hope someone will have some ideas?? the reason I only have £200 is that I recently sold my hifi to upgrade to pa and only have £200 left after buying verious new pices of equptment that I "need".

 

The Cabs would mainly be used for speach and disco work but will eventualy form a MUCH bigger system that will acomidate bands with audiance sizes of about 400. on there own they need to do atleast 100 people and need to be verry loud. all the more reason for this being so hard to find on the cheap

 

good look and I know you will come up with something

 

thanks

Tom

[Pyramid]

Hi Tom

All I can say is good luck to you. Anything that you get (cabs and amp) for under £200 will not sound good and be really loud (even using second hand gear), nor will it ever be part of a larger system worthy of large events/gigs. Sorry to be brutal but it just is not a real expectation.

If you want something half decent for £200 that might pay for 1 or 2 nights hire, if you know someone nice!

 

Andy

[mervaka]

cheapest new PA set I can find with 15" cones is this:

 

http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_box_pa502_a_bundle.htm

 

otherwise here's a set for a little more with bins:

 

http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_box_cl_106112_power_bundle.htm

 

However, I would recommend you instead save your money for something more substantial though. a half decent PA system costs a lot more than that even second hand.

[simonwest]

I'll second Andy to that one

 

If you can buy anything for 200quid to match your requirements.... We'll all be very interested to hear...

 

That is not to say you cant get 'something' for 200quid, maybe from ebay or equivalent

 

Studiospares have this Clicky so for 2 of them you'd have it within your budgetish (its not 12inch though)... but whether they are loud enough depends on the amount of people your covering...and also how much real bass you want

 

More information and larger budget would help us to help you ;)

 

Simon

[johndenim]

Wow!, £200, you might struggle there, although saying that there is a company in mansfield called CLASS D, they do some average sounding kit thats not going to break the bank, have a look at their website,

http://www.class-d.com/ im sure you will find something.

 

John denim.

[saturnx21]

As many have already said 200 quid is a real small budget for what you are looking for! my suggestion would be to take some time checking out as many different cabs as possible and then look on the second hand market there is some very good auction sites around! You may well find something that will suit your needs. But going with that option you realy do need to know what you are looking for/at so you don't end up with something useless!

[tomchennells]

thats a tough budget!

 

all I can think is maybe buy a single budget active 12?

 

eg.

http://www.studiospares.com/pd_248250_STU%...ve%20single.htm

 

and then buy the second one when you have the other 200quid!

- if your looking at amps and cabs I dont really know any product that cheap

 

the nice thing about doing this is you can allways use the active cabs one day in your big systym as wedges/ monitors <_<

 

tom

[johndenim]

As many have already said 200 quid is a real small budget for what you are looking for! my suggestion would be to take some time checking out as many different cabs as possible and then look on the second hand market there is some very good auction sites around! You may well find something that will suit your needs. But going with that option you realy do need to know what you are looking for/at so you don't end up with something useless!

 

 

 

I think that as only speech and disco applications are going to be applied,

The bottom end of the market should do the job until a bigger budget is available.

Although I can see the point that Rich is making.

The rule is, quality.... costs.

[mervaka]

thats not the point he was making

 

would you buy a £200 car?

[ferrisio]

would you buy a £200 car?

Slightly OT possibly, I have bought several cars for £200ish when times have been hard, run them for a year then sold them for the same amount, having spent less on running the thing for a year than a months depreciation on some modern cars!

 

The analogy still works as some cheap used active speakers are always going to be useful to someone for a few quid, although as others have said I think a more realistic £3-400 is going to make all the difference between totally unsuitable rubbish, and 'usable' stuff.

[lightsource]

I think what we're all trying to say here, is that it isn't really possible to purchase what you want within your budget.

 

Look at the hire market, and see if there's a local company that can supply the gear on a day by day basis (dry hire)

 

I think this is you're only option with the budget available.

[djtom29]

Hi everyone

 

I have been looking around a bit and cant seem to find anything so far. I have decided that I will just "borrow" verious pices of equptment from other people as I have a number of friends that have well looked after and nice sounding pa systems and have offered me them for free. How ever I have another question.......

When you look in to buying a new cab......... what are the main things you look for? I know the build quailty, price and sound of the cab are important but what is the main thing that sells it? I ask this because I whent in to a shop the other day and asked to here a number of cabs and had no idea what I was looking for!

 

thanks again

Tom

[johndenim]

Hi Tom,

My personal opinion would be first of all, what are you going to be using them for?

 

If you have a pair of £10,000 cabs and only use them entertaining the residents in the local nursing home, you are not really going to use them to their full potential.

Alright, that example was a bit OTT, but you get the idea.

 

A disco with limited speech and mostly playing cd's or mp3's is not going to require top notch cabs, somewhere in the middle of the road would do.

However if you were singing as a live entertainer then it would pay to buy a better cab.

 

You are doing the right thing, going into music shops and having a listen.

A good balance of all three of your requirements ("build quailty, price and sound of the cab")

and also professional advice from a non-specific dealer will help you decide.

 

 

John Denim.

[Sirch Sound]

You are doing the right thing, going into music shops and having a listen.

 

Not if you dont know what your looking for ;)

 

However yes, once you know what your looking to use your cabs for then having a listen is a very sensible thing to look at. You also need to decided what sort of volume you want from your cabs, is it as loud as possible? Therefore possibly sacrafising sound quality or could you compremise with slightly quieter cab?

 

Buily quality is a very hard one to look at in a shop, the best bet is to find a selectionof cabs and then post on here and people with the cabs in question will be able to tell you how well they have lasted over the years.

 

My advice would be to buy the most expensive cabs you can afford, as it has been said on here many times, a better pair of speakers with a cheaper amp will sound better than a cheaper pair of cabs and a better amp.

 

And finally I would try to go to more lighting and sound based shops/showrooms, as the salemen/women will have a much better knowlege of the gear and also what sort of things they should be showing you and reccomending to you.

 

If you need any more help then pm me and I shal help you to the best of my knowlage. I sypathise with you because you sound exactly like me when I was your age!

 

Hope this helps

Rich

[saturnx21]

You are doing the right thing, going into music shops and having a listen.

 

Not if you dont know what your looking for ;)

 

And finally I would try to go to more lighting and sound based shops/showrooms, as the salesmen/women will have a much better knowledge of the gear and also what sort of things they should be showing you and recommending to you.

 

Rich

 

Bit of a contradiction that Rich! the best way for the OP IS to have a look at as many show rooms as possible and listen to as much as possible. BUT Be very wary of listening to sales people they tend to just want to sell you as much as possible! and that may not be what you need.

 

Also one or two people have suggested hire of the equipment as and when you need it, but the problem with that is your budget will vanish in probably 2-3 hires and after that you would end up passing the hire cost on to your customers and this may not keep you competitive. With this size budget the best thing is to do your research and buy second hand, if you know what your looking at/for then you can pick up some real bargains!

 

For example only a few weeks ago I purchased a rig (off of that wonderfully auction site.......!) consisting of: 4 x 15"+horns and 2 x twin 15" bins now the drivers in this rig consisted of JBL and Eminence, (one BL 15" was blown) this set up cost me 350 quid! well below it's actual value.